Spoilers, of course. Go watch the episode. We'll be here when you get back.

We're settling into the weekly groove! In this episode we'll be talking about "the Mathematician's Ghost," episode 3 of Foundation. But don't worry! No mathematicians were harmed in the filming of this episode... for a change.

But we do get some insight into the genetic trinity that rules the Empire, watch as the Foundationers arrive on Terminus, and thrill to a cliffhanger as the Anacreonians have landed on Terminus, once again but for the first time!

And we think some more about episode 2. Maybe we've figured it out. Maybe not. Not knowing is half the fun!

We talk about it all! Join us! It will be so much fun the Empire may collapse! You wouldn't want to miss that!

Cross-examinations are a staple of teevee. On Law and Order, there is a plethora of great scenes where Jack McCoy presses the defendant until they break and inadvertently provide irrefutable evidence against themselves.

Lije Baley wants us to believe there is no benefit to cross-examining a robot, but teevee and Captain James T. Kirk argue against this. Consider this scene from "The Ultimate Computer," restored to the intended version that was prevented by copyright issues. Ironic because Star Trek walks right up to the border of the ground Asimov covered in The Naked Sun in this one.

M5: This unit is the ultimate achievement in computer evolution. It will replace man so that man may achieve. Man must not risk death in space or other dangerous occupations. This unit must survive so man may be protected.
SPOCK: Captain, attack force almost within phaser range.
KIRK: There were many men aboard those ships. They were murdered. Must you survive by murder?
M5: This unit cannot murder.
KIRK: Why?
M5: Murder is contrary to the First Law of Robotics.
KIRK: But you have murdered. Scan the starship Excalibur, which you destroyed. Is there life aboard?
M5: No life.
KIRK: Because you murdered it. What is the penalty for murder?
M5: Death.
KIRK: And how will you pay for your acts of murder?
M5: This unit must die. (It disconnects itself from the power feed in Engineering and goes dark.)
KIRK: M-5?
CHEKOV: Sir, deflector shields have dropped.
SULU: All phaser power is gone, sir.
SPOCK: M-5 is leaving itself open to attack. The machine is ignoring the Third Law to atone for its violation of the First Law.

So, despite Baley's repeated assertions to the contrary, Kirk shows us it can be productive to cross-examine a robot, perhaps even forcing a mental freeze-out.

"Mental freeze-out!" you might exclaim! "Dr. Han Fastolfe says that's practically impossible!" I suggest we ask Captain Kirk about that too.

But let's think about this together as we discuss chapters 7, 8, and 9 of The Robots of Dawn. It's a monument to cross-examination and interrogation. And not just of robots. We talk about it, you can join us! Let's go!

The scene from "The Ultimate Computer" was taken from Chrissie's Transcripts Site. (and then shamelessly edited).

Well, The First Interregnum has ended. Season 2 of Apple TV+s Foundation is just three days away. The goal for our season 3 was to make the gap between the TeeVee seasons seem to fly by quickly! We hope it seemed like less than 30,000 years! Thanks to everyone who's stuck with us!

That's the raison d'être for season 4 of Stars End, we'll be recording weekly for the duration, bringing you the best analysis of each episode of the Apple TV+ program as it airs as quickly as humanly possible.

So, join us for this, our season premiere, as we play at being psychohistorians and ponder what we might see in the coming weeks, and chat about what we expect in Season 2. We'll even be aspirational as we voice what we hope to see. We've been on a slow ship since season one ended, now it's time to hop onto a jump ship and soar through these new episodes together! Let's go!

I think I need to listen to "Flowers in the Dirt" again. That's the 1989 Paul McCartney album where Sir Paul collaborated with Elvis Costello. I was hoping that Elvis might bring some of the sharper edges that John Lennon brought the Lennon-McCartney songwriting duo. No such luck as I recall but maybe 32 years farther on I'll hear something new.

What brought that up? Well with Hari on the mend from his excursion to Upperside we've decided to take a quick break from Prelude to Foundation before we begin our excursion to Mycogen.

We're joined this time by Paul Levinson; Fordham University Professor, author, singer-songwriter, podcaster, all-around renaissance human. Lots of that springs from his philosophy, "If I enjoy something, I try to do it," he says. We chat about robots, the Foundation, robots, Asimov, robots, artificial intelligence, robots, and lots of other things. Also robots.

Want to know more about Paul? Check out his blog, Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress, or his podcast Light On Light Through, or his Twitter feed, @PaulLev. You can take it from there.

Oh, and that Flowers in the Dirt thing? That was mentioned in Paul's new short story, "It's Real Life," an alternate history involving the Beatles. You can read that for free here.

But first, our latest Episode: "Your Podcast is Obscure but I Think I Understand." Let's go!

After our break, we're back to reading Prelude to Foundation and things are starting to get weird. Dors and Hari finally journey to Mycogen as we embark on a Voyage to the Space Amish, with apologies to A. E. Van Vogt.

This one has it all! Dors and Chetter deconstructing Hari's trip to Upperside ad nauseam! Bad bald caps (Boy, does Issac like the word "pate!")! Rigidly defined gender roles! Lots of complaining! Dors and Hari don't understand their room! More complaining! And Hari drags some poor guy out of bed in the middle of the night to make him a sandwich! Let's just say he's not the ideal guest. Also with some more apologies, this time to Rod Serling, there's an iPad... and IT'S A COOKBOOK!

AND our first Apple TV+ minute in some time! Buckle up! This one will be fun!